Renewable
by Karartegirl99
Summary: This was a series of drabbles that started with the question, "What if energy was scarce in the new universe?" and ended with the question "What series of events led the kids to confront Caliborn despite knowing that they would be sucked into the weapon?" I don't know why I can't just leave happy endings be... So yeah, this is pretty much just angst, I guess.
1. Chapter 1

"Will the alchemiters work in the new universe?" Jade asked. It was one of the last questions any of them asked as they stood on the platform.

They all looked at each other dumbly.

"I mean, will there even be grist in the new universe?" Jade asked, and suddenly everyone found themselves looking through their sylladices, silently panicking, estimating how long their food supplies would last them.

Karkat looked at Dave in horror. "How will we build Can Town?" he mouthed.

"At least we have the planets," Kanaya said. "We do have the planets, right?" she added, looking at Jade. Jade triple-checked her pockets and nodded.

John thought for a moment. "Well... _our_ universe didn't have alchemiters when we started. We've survived this long without them. We'll be fine. I think…"

"Yeah!" said Roxy. "If we can beat an immortal alien queen, we can do anything! Come on, guys!"

Everyone smiled, albeit uneasily, and watched with renewed calm as the genesis tadpole made its journey.


	2. Chapter 2

In a Carapacian diner in the southern Can Town district, in between the dinner rush and the midnight snacks, four hooded humans shared a booth.

"They're calling me 'matriarch,'" Jade whispered, nursing her pumpkin juice. " _Matriarch._ "

"I think people call me that, too," said Rose. "Just not to my face."

"Same," Jane sighed.

"Not me." Roxy, the only one of them who had ordered actual food, poked idly at her coffee cake. "The chess people, bless their heart, they call me 'pumpkin lady.'"

"You should hear what the pupae think of you, Roxy," Rose said. "Did I tell you, the other day, one of them asked Kanaya when 'Auntie Roxy' would be visiting. Children and their charming habits," she said, smiling faintly.

Jade, always one to cheer others, grinned. "Yeah, Roxy, the new generation loves you! You're like the new Santa Claus!"

"Haha, yeah…"

In the awkward silence that followed, Rose swirled her spoon in her coffee. It was that cheap, New Earth coffee left over from the meteors. Somebody coughed.

After a while, Jane spoke up. "Where's Calli?"

"Out," said Roxy. There were no follow-up questions.

Outside, the city buzzed with makeshift life. Children of various species, most of them ectobiological, all of them inbred, skipped across the broken pavement. Clotheslines stretched between the apartment buildings. From inside the diner, the girls couldn't see the stars, but they knew they were there, just like they knew there would always be eight planets in the sky to outshine the moons.

Jade checked her watch. "The 9:45 should be leaving any minute."

"Oh, let them wait," Roxy insisted.

"I still don't see why we can't find some way of fueling those ships," Jane said.

"With what?" Rose asked. "D'you think Roxy can just appearify cold fusion?"

"Guys," said Roxy.

"Wouldn't hurt to try," Jane muttered.

"Guys," Roxy said again, a soft plea that no one heard.

"Well, this has been fun," Jade said, grabbing her purse, "but I've a battleship to pilot. Can you all get home okay?"

They all nodded. Most of them lived on-planet, and Roxy still had business to wrap up in town. There was construction going on a few blocks away, and, as she put it, "steel beams aren't going to appearify themselves." The girls smiled sympathetically.

It was a miracle they'd lasted so long.


	3. Chapter 3

They were benevolent gods. They built The New Cities with their own hands, and The Maid wove grass into the soil of the Earth, and The Witch placed the planets in a perfect ring around the life-giving sun. It was The Garden of Eden 2.0, and for many generations life couldn't be sweeter.

Except one day, the gods left.

There was a great affair, with much weeping on the part of the consorts, but it was no use. Immortals are easily saddened, and too quickly they grow bored. But who can be sure of their intentions? The prophecies were there, and even with all their happy endings they could find little better to do than fulfill them. The juju got its four warriors; the other four went missing.

They left trolls and guardians behind, but these were old and didn't rule long. Soon all that was left of the heros and their entourage were the things they had brought with them. The old transport ships, still dressed in the banners of war they wore when they were first stolen off the battlefield, gathered dust in empty spaceports. The view of the session planets was obscured by trillions of shitty skateboards released, over the course of decades, into Earth's orbit. Without leaders, without order, it was a world full of city states and pumpkin patches, and every now and then a wanderer would come upon a great copper statue whose pixels shined red in the starlight.

People did pretty well for themselves. People forgot.

Kanaya had trouble forgetting. She grew old, yes, on the brink of death even, but that was the thing with rainbow drinkers, wasn't it? They hold on for too long. She still couldn't believe that Vriska wasn't coming back. She'd always thought the high blood would outlive her, and even when she had become a rainbow drinker she'd figured that Vriska's immortality would last longer. Hell, she still couldn't believe that Rose wasn't coming back. She couldn't believe that every time she fell asleep, sopor slime or no, she would see what remained of the afterlife, and Rose wouldn't be there. She prayed to every god she knew of that Rose was still okay.

The wedding veil still hangs in her bedroom, but the sun has long since bleached it and it's coated in decades of dust.


End file.
